2014 D3 Season: National Perspective

Started by PaulNewman, August 24, 2014, 02:13:42 PM

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PaulNewman

Wanted to start a thread that promotes comments and analysis about all of our D3 faves from a national perspective since many of the threads seem to be very conference-specific.

Great job with the new poll about some great opening weekend matchups.

In addition to those a few others caught my eye...

Hobart vs Brandeis

Ill Wesleyan traveling east to take on Wheaton (MA) and Babson

Montclair vs Skidmore

VA Wesleyan vs York and then Rutgers-C

Chicago vs Dominican

Case Western vs Roanoke and Lynchburg

Centre vs Emory

Ithaca vs Oneonta

Rutgers-N vs Emory

Randolph vs Johns Hopkins

TCNJ vs Messiah

And for the next weekend, SLU vs Rochester has got to be the game of the week.

P.S.  Credit to F&M for coming right out of the gate with Rutgers-C and away to York.

PaulNewman

Correction:  looks like F&M actually is hosting.

lastguyoffthebench

#2
York hosts on Friday. F&M hosts on Saturday.

PaulNewman

Yeah, that was tough to figure out.  Strange scheduling, but at least F&M gets a home game out of that brutal start.

frank uible

OWU opens the season with games against Calvin (at Calvin) and Hope (at Hope) on consecutive days in August.

Saint of Old

Brandeis v. Hobart should be interesting.

Former champions Brandeis are nothing if not consistent.
They seem to hit a bump in the dance each year, perhaps due to a lack of physicality in the deeper rounds.

Hobart has never been accused of being non physical, but their play has falen off in the last 3 or so years. At the turn of the decade, they were a team to be reckoned with who would be a shoe in for the weekly Top 20 in the nation.
This year they must improve and this is a good place to start.
If Hobart wins, look out for a much improved season.

Ithica v. Oneanta should also be fun.

Oneanta are not that far removed from their amazing final 4 run in 11' that saw them losing to eventual champs OWU.
The last couple seasons have been sub-par by their standards, but they have the genes to do damage on any given Saturday.
Ithica has been good for a very long time, Since current St. Lawrence Coach was wearing their #10 shirt in the early 80s. You can always count on Ithi ca to be very relevant every 4 or so years recently., The Marlins of D3 Soccer.

PaulNewman

IMHO this is going to be a very interesting year for OWU.  They are the last team besides Messiah to win it all.  They are coming off two superb seasons that ended very abruptly with their opening NCAA games.  They lost a big senior class.  There will be no shortage of talent I'm sure, as they do have key players returning, but on the other hand DePauw and Kenyon and even Oberlin have closed the gap.  OWU narrowly landed ahead of Kenyon in the coaches' preseason poll, but my early read would be DePauw, Kenyon, and then OWU, with Oberlin solidly in the 4th spot.  The NCAC looks to be very competitive this year with the 4 already mentioned, and will be even tougher if Denison has a good year and if Allegheny can rebound.

PaulNewman

Watch out for Brandeis this year.  The Judges are loaded.  May take them 5-6 games to get all of the pieces in sync and of course they need to avoid key injuries, but a very deep run is possible. 

Ommadawn

Regarding the upcoming Brandeis-Hobart match, I was surprised to see that Hobart's 2013 Liberty League Rookie of the Year center midfielder was not on the 2014 roster.  Is he injured (severely)?  Did he return to Hobart?

KnightFalcon

Messiah will have a couple of tests early as they travel to NJ to play back-to-backs on opening weekend against NJAC members TCNJ and Rowan

lastguyoffthebench

York vs VWU will have live stats and video... doesn't hurt to check at 2 pm for the F&M v RUC game, as that should likely be on as well.

KnightFalcon

Nice start to the season for Calvin with a gritty 2-1 victory over OWU in OT. Calvin looked done at the half and maybe a bit fortunate to be down only 0-1. But they came out much stronger in the second half getting a header off a corner kick to tie.

Mr. Ypsi

Quote from: NCAC New England on August 24, 2014, 02:13:42 PM
Wanted to start a thread that promotes comments and analysis about all of our D3 faves from a national perspective since many of the threads seem to be very conference-specific.

Great job with the new poll about some great opening weekend matchups.

In addition to those a few others caught my eye...

Hobart vs Brandeis

Ill Wesleyan traveling east to take on Wheaton (MA) and Babson

Montclair vs Skidmore

VA Wesleyan vs York and then Rutgers-C

Chicago vs Dominican

Case Western vs Roanoke and Lynchburg

Centre vs Emory

Ithaca vs Oneonta

Rutgers-N vs Emory

Randolph vs Johns Hopkins

TCNJ vs Messiah

And for the next weekend, SLU vs Rochester has got to be the game of the week.

P.S.  Credit to F&M for coming right out of the gate with Rutgers-C and away to York.

Unlike football, basketball (both genders) and baseball, IWU is traditionally pretty lousy in soccer.  It will give a point of reference between the Wheatons, however, as IWU is in the same conference as Wheaton IL.

Saint of Old

University of Rochester loses to Morrisville 3-2.
This Morrisville team does look a bit strong however.
They are playing better non-conference competition lately in order to get in and be ready for a possible DANCE.

Montclair beats Skidmore 3-2

Tough to give an assessment of the game. The field was that bad, but both teams could be heard from down the road.

PaulNewman

KnightFalcon, were you at the Calvin game too?  You said you were at every Messiah tournament game, then last week's Wheaton exhibition.  Are you D3soccer's roving reported with a special interest in the religious-affiliated programs?